The ‘Instagram’ fever has been caught on by the masses, which has led to it becoming a giant in the world of social media attracting over 300 million active users.

Everyday it’s attracting thousands of users who are joining Instagram to connect with not just their friends and family but also with the different brands and celebrities who have taken to this popular platform to connect with their followers. So it’s no surprise that with its rise in popularity, it has managed to catch the eye of the digital marketers who have realized its huge potential and what it could mean in the world of advertising.

But is Instagram Marketing really for everyone? That is a question that must be pondered on before you go ahead and take a leap into the world of Instagram marketing. See, there are basically two aspects of Instagram marketing: one is where you can market yourself through influencers and the second being through Instagram ads which is a feature that has been added in recent times. Before we can go ahead and assess whether Instagram marketing would have any impact, positive or negative, on your brand it is essential to understand what influencer marketing and Instagram ads really are and how they work.

Influencer marketing – what is that? It’s basically when brands collaborate with Instagram “celebs” with a huge following to market their brand. A common marketing strategy that is now linked to the world of Instagram as well, it actually works and positive results have been witnessed by brands such as FedEx, Birchbox, BMW amongst others. What works for this type of marketing is the emotional connect that users have with the influencers, so what the influencer likes or supports, the followers too unconsciously begin to do that. However, like all markets, here too it’s important that you are able to find your niche so that you can target accordingly those influencers and their followers for this type of marketing to really work.

Now let’s come down to Instagram Ads – just like ads on any other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram ads too can be commonly found on a user’s Instagram story. And like any other ad, it too has its benefits and drawbacks. Perhaps one of the biggest advantages it holds is that it directs the attention of the user towards your ad – basically towards your brand. This means that the more number of users who come across your ads, the higher the awareness about your brand. Coming to the drawbacks, these ads like others tend to annoy the users. Imagine scrolling through your Instagram account and coming across such ads. So while it has its benefit, you also cannot ignore this fact either.

Now that you have a basic idea of these two types of marketing that can be done through Instagram, keep in mind that you are also able to reach out to a larger audience and build brand awareness by doing the following:

• Using hashtags to reach a specific set of audience.
• Use this platform to show to users your brand’s creative side.
• Give them an exclusive peek of your brand by taking them behind the scenes.